Cyber Monday sales top $3 billion as discounts spur buyers

(Reuters) - Americans bought more than $3 billion worth of goods on Cyber Monday, a leading survey showed, as bigger-than-expected discounts and strong demand for electronics and toys added up to the biggest ever day for U.S. online sales.

Mobile devices accounted for 26 percent of online sales, according to the Adobe Digital Index report, based on data from 200 million visits to 4,500 retail websites on what is traditionally the busiest day of the year for Internet shopping.

Top-selling items included Lego Star Wars, the Barbie Dream House, Samsung 4k television sets and Apple Inc's iPad Mini. Star Wars toys were among the items most frequently out of stock, Adobe said in a report sent to Reuters on Tuesday.

A spike in online sales on the first Monday after the U.S. Thanksgiving weekend was originally attributed to fast Internet connections in the office, which persuaded shoppers to wait out Black Friday and make purchases online from their workplace.

As the tradition of Cyber Monday has grown over the last decade, online retailers have offered bigger promotions. The average discount on items sold during Cyber Monday was 21.5 percent, Adobe said in its report.

This contributed to a 16 percent rise in online sales to $3.07 billion.

"So many businesses fared better this year because they planned it out better," said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at NPD Group, a retail industry research firm. "Overall, pretty much every retailer performed better than in years past."

Amazon itself said sales of its electronic gadgets more than tripled over the entire Thanksgiving weekend, with the Fire tablet its top-selling product.

Online sales were in stark contrast to the performance of brick-and-mortar retailers over the four-day weekend. Sales fell 10.4 percent from a year earlier to $20.43 billion, according to research firm ShopperTrak.

Cyber Monday did not go without a hitch, however. Many consumers spent hours waiting in virtual lines and about 14 in every 100, or more than double the average for a normal day, logged on to find their chosen product out of stock.

Star Wars fans weren't the only disappointed consumers. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's 55-inch screen 4K TVs were among the items most often out of stock, as were some Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox console bundles.

SOUTH PORTLAND, ME - NOVEMBER 27: A shopper emerges from Target with a large, flat-screen TV at about 1 a.m. Friday. (Photo by Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images)

Shoppers leave a Target store after the start of a Black Friday sale that started a day earlier during Thanksgiving evening in Los Angeles, California on November 26, 2015. The US holiday shopping season kicks off with 'Black Friday' -- the day after the Thanksgiving holiday -- with a frenzy expected at stores around the country as retailers slash prices. AFP PHOTO/ MARK RALSTON / AFP / MARK RALSTON (Photo credit should read MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images)

Pedestrians carry shopping bags on Black Friday through Herald Square in New York, U.S., on Friday, Nov. 27, 2015. In 2011, several big U.S. retailers moved their opening times to midnight; in 2012, Wal-Mart crossed the Rubicon and opened its stores at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. But after last year's Thanksgiving weekend retail sales fell 11 percent from the year before while overall holiday sales rose, some retailers have been reconsidering. Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Shoppers leave a Target store after the start of a Black Friday sale that started a day earlier during Thanksgiving evening in Los Angeles, California on November 26, 2015. The US holiday shopping season kicks off with 'Black Friday' -- the day after the Thanksgiving holiday -- with a frenzy expected at stores around the country as retailers slash prices. AFP PHOTO/ MARK RALSTON / AFP / MARK RALSTON (Photo credit should read MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images)

Shoppers leave a Target store after the start of a Black Friday sale that started a day earlier during Thanksgiving evening in Los Angeles, California on November 26, 2015. The US holiday shopping season kicks off with 'Black Friday' -- the day after the Thanksgiving holiday -- with a frenzy expected at stores around the country as retailers slash prices. AFP PHOTO/ MARK RALSTON / AFP / MARK RALSTON (Photo credit should read MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images)

Customers line up waiting for the doors to open at a Target store in Fairfax, Virginia on November 26, 2015, on a Black Friday sale that started a day earlier during Thanksgiving evening. The US holiday shopping season kicks off with 'Black Friday' -- the day after the Thanksgiving holiday -- with a frenzy expected at stores around the country as retailers slash prices. AFP PHOTO/PAUL J. RICHARDS / AFP / PAUL J. RICHARDS (Photo credit should read PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images)

Pedestrians carry shopping bags on Black Friday through Herald Square in New York, U.S., on Friday, Nov. 27, 2015. In 2011, several big U.S. retailers moved their opening times to midnight; in 2012, Wal-Mart crossed the Rubicon and opened its stores at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. But after last year's Thanksgiving weekend retail sales fell 11 percent from the year before while overall holiday sales rose, some retailers have been reconsidering. Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images